MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida woman accused of shooting her children's foster mother last week was previously arrested in March after pointing a gun at a Florida Department of Children and Families employee and fleeing with her children, authorities said.
According to an arrest report, Candi Johnson pulled a gun on a DCF worker March 9 who was trying to remove her children from her home and threatened to shoot him if he touched her children.
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Police said Johnson, then 33, then duct taped her four children's mouths closed and ushered them out of the home through the back door.
Authorities said Johnson was arrested March 24 after she was pulled over in Stuart while driving a white Budget rental van that police had been told she was driving while heading back to Miami from South Carolina.
Police said four children, ages 4, 2, 2 and 1, were found in the van. The 1-year-old was in a car seat, buckled in the front passenger seat, and the other children were all unrestrained on the floor of the cargo hold of the van, authorities said.
According to the arrest report, there was a metal wall dividing the cab from the cargo hold, so Johnson had no direct access to the children as she was driving.
Police said she had also been speeding, driving between 85-90 mph in a 70 mph zone.
Johnson was arrested on four felony counts of child abuse/neglect.
Johnson now faces more charges, including attempted murder, conspiracy to kidnap and armed burglary.
Police said Johnson and a man, who is still at large, ambushed a 77-year-old woman at a home on Jackson Street in southwest Miami-Dade County around 5 a.m. Friday.
Police said Johnson and her accomplice demanded Johnson's two children, a 5-year-old girl and 2-year-old boy, be returned to them, but the foster mother refused to give them up.
A struggle ensued and police said the foster mother was shot multiple times.
After the shooting, police said Johnson took the kids back to her home on Northwest 87th Street, where she was arrested.
The wounded foster mother was taken to Jackson South Medical Center, where she was listed in stable condition.
The children were found unharmed and are now in the custody of the Florida Department of Children and Families.